The Pair Approached An Elderly Hispanic Woman At A Supermarket And Asked Her For Money.

An elderly woman who spoke Spanish was approached separately by two strangers in the parking lot of Albertson's Supermarket, 1012 Buenaventura Blvd., last week but didn't fall for their ruse, investigators said.

The elderly woman was approached by a woman she described as white, about 35 years old, with brown hair and weighing about 135 pounds. The younger woman was wearing a beige suit and sunglasses, and had a Spanish accent. She told the elderly woman that she needed about $20,000 to collect on a $155,000 winning lottery ticket that she could not claim because she was not an American citizen.

Then a man - also described as white with a Spanish accent, 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds, who wore a striped dress shirt and dark pants - approached, offering to help the elderly woman with her groceries, investigators said.

The man, who was really part of the scam, was also told about the lottery ticket, investigators said. He agreed to help if the elderly woman would also contribute money so the ticket could be redeemed. Pretending to call state lottery officials, he said they needed $40,000. The elderly woman said she needed to go home first. She drove the pair to her home but became suspicious when they asked her if she had any certificates of deposit or the title to her residence. She then told them she had no money and drove them back to the store.

The typical victims are elderly women who speak Spanish, investigators say. Last year the same scam was run at least a dozen times in the parking lots of two BVL supermarkets and other stores in Osceola County. In previous cases, scammers told their victims that if they lent them cash to pay taxes on the winnings, they would share the prize money. The scammers switched bags of cash and jewelry for bags full of paper before fleeing.